The area is known as the Isle of Athelney, because it was once a very low isolated island in the 'very great swampy and impassable marshes' of the Somerset Levels.

Archaeological excavations and written evidence indicate that at the time of Alfred the island was linked by a causeway, known as Balt Moor Wall, to East Lyng, with either end protected by a semi-circular stockade and ditch; the ditch on the island is now known to date from the Iron Age.

After Athelney Abbey was dissolved, the monks built the church in the neighbouring village of East Lyng.

There are no remains of the monastery above ground, but investigations were carried out in the first episode of television archaeology programme Time Team in 1993.

Athelney is around 6 miles (9.7 km) from North Petherton, where the Alfred Jewel (an Anglo-Saxon ornament dating from the late 9th century) was discovered in 1693.